WV Governor Rejects His Own Panel's Recommendations, Won't Push For More MCHM Testing In Homes

Last edited Sat Jun 28, 2014, 12:46 PM - Edit history (1)

Rejecting the recommendation of his own experts, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said Thursday he has no immediate plans to conduct additional testing of home tap water to determine if any Crude MCHM from the Freedom Industries leak remains in the region’s drinking water system.

Tomblin said he would consider such testing if additional studies determine there are specific long-term health threats from exposure to the coal-cleaning chemical. The governor said he will continue to ask the federal government to conduct animal-exposure studies to see if MCHM poses any long-term health threat.

“That’s the information we need first,” Tomblin said. “If those tests were to come back negative, I’m not sure how much additional [water] testing we would need. If there are long-term negative effects, then, obviously, we would need to go back in.”

The governor made his comments during one in a series of interview sessions with small groups of reporters following Thursday afternoon’s release of the final report from the West Virginia Testing Assessment Project, a group of experts hired by the Tomblin administration in February in the midst of strong public backlash over the lack of home water testing after the Freedom Industries chemical leak.

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http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20140626/GZ01/140629454